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A Syllabus of Ethics 



Bryant 



Chicago 
S. C. Griggs and Company 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR: 



I. The World -Energy and its Self- 
Conservation. (Griggs.) - ^i 50 

II. Hegel's Philosophy of Art, Trans- 
lation with Introduction. (Out of 
print.) I 75 

III. Philosophy of Landscape Painting, i 00 

IV. Goethe as a Representative of the 

Modern Art-Spirit, - - 25 

V. Historical Presuppositions and 
Foreshadowings of Dante's ** Di- 
vine Comedy," - - - 15 

VI. Eternity, a Thread in the Weaving 

-of a Life. (Griggs.) - - o 25 

VII. A Syllabus of Psychology. (Griggs.) 25 

VIII. A Text-Book of Psychology. (In prep- 
aration.) 



A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS 



^* 



BYJ 

WILLIAM MpBRYANT, M.A. 

INSTRUCTOR IN MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ST. LOUIS NORMAL 
AND HIGH SCHOOL 





n^7 



CHICAGO 

S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 

1894 






\ 



Copyright, 1894 
By S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 



R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO,, CHICAGO 



PREFACE. 



The present sketch is an outgrowth of work done 
during several years with my classes in the St. Louis 
High School. In its present form, however, the 
sketch has been prepared directly with a view to 
meeting the needs of the St. Louis Society of Peda- 
gogy in so far as one of the Sections of that Society 
is organized for the express purpose of studying 
Ethics. 

My aim has been first of all to furnish a guide to 
what I cannot but regard as a specially fruitful 
method in the study of Ethics, rather than to present 
an elaborate scheme of the science of Ethics as such. 
On the other hand, as in my Syllabus of Psychology, 
so here, I have omitted details and have sought thus 
to bring into so much the clearer view the essential 
aspects of the subject, and have attempted also to 
indicate the vital relation which those aspects sus- 
tain one to another in the organic unity of human 
life. 

It is such emphasizing of already more or less 
clearly recognized fundamental principles, and this 
with reference to their practical application, rather 

5 



O PREFACE. 

than subtilizing upon obscure points of theory, that 
is most needed in our general (and for the greater 
part elementary) educational work. If Ethics is really 
to be taught to any good purpose in our schools this 
distinction between the earnest and intelligent pur- 
suit of what is really of practical import, in contrast 
with the merely dilettantish inquiry after what is 
at best but curious, must not only be kept clearly in 
view, it must also be consistently observed in 
practice by the teacher. And further, no one can 
successfully teach what he does not explicitly and 
sincerely believe. Nor is this all ; the growing de- 
mand for definite Ethical teaching means nothing 
less than that the teacher is more and more positively 
expected to have a clearly defined Ethical creed. 
More than anything else, in fact, could we but look 
into the heart of it, the great educational revival of 
to-day means that now at length there is emerging 
into clearly conscious form a deep-lying universal 
conviction to the effect that all teaching is merely 
phantasmal unless it has a genuinely Ethical core. 

The teacher can meet this conviction only by 
sharing it and becoming a leader in the fuller and 
more reasonable expression of it in its positive im- 
port. Let each contribute his mite. As for the 
present writer, this sketch is the best he has now in 
form to offer. Nevertheless, imperfect as it is, he 
hopes it may not be without use ; and so it is offered. 



PREFACE. 



Perhaps at some future time he may attempt a more 
adequate representation of the Science of Human 
Conduct. 



A selected list of hand and reference books will 
be found at the close of this Syllabus. 



A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 

Like every other science the Science of Ethics is 
at once both inductive and deductive. In the pro- 
cess of its development as a science it is predomi- 
nantly inductive and synthetic. In the process of its 
application it is predominantly deductive and analyt- 
ical. In the former case search is made, consciously 
or unconsciously, for a first principle that shall really 
unify knowledge and hence serve as a true, ade- 
quate, and hence unvarying standard of judgment in 
the given field. In the latter case such principle is 
assumed as already discovered ; and what is really 
striven after is the precise valuation of given particu- 
lar facts by means of the assumed principle. 

In reality, as need hardly be said, the develop- 
ment of the science of Ethics on the one hand and 
its application on the other have never been and 
could never be wholly separated. They are but com- 
plementary aspects in the development of any degree 
of life that could properly be called human. And this 
is evident from the fact that the incessant practical 
necessity of forming judgments upon given particular 

9 



10 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

concrete instances has stimulated, and could not but 
stimulate inquiry concerning the required general 
principle ; while each stage in the clearing up of 
consciousness as to what the principle really is has 
served to insure an increase in the adequacy and 
accuracy of the judgments actually formed. 

Looked at as a result Ethics may be defined as 
the Science of Human Conduct. Looked at as a pro- 
cess it may be defined as the jEvolution of the Human 
Conscience. In the latter sense there never w^as a 
period when Ethics was wholly wanting. In the 
former sense there never has been and can never 
be a period when Ethics could be conceived as 
altogether matured diwd finished. 

But further, just as in its very beginning, the Sci- 
ence of Ethics presupposed the actual existence of the 
Ethical process, and this as being already well ad- 
vanced, so also in its more mature forms this Science 
presupposes the existence of other sciences. In its 
form and method especially, it presupposes the two 
mutually complementary sciences of Logic and Meta- 
physics ; while in its subject-matter it presupposes 
more directly the Sciences of Psychology, Social Phi- 
losophy, and Theology — that is, the sciences which 
trace out, first the fundamental, typical nature of the 
human individual; secondly, the fundamental prin- 
ciples involved in associated human life; and finally, 
the ultimate nature of the supreme primal Con- 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

sciousness, together with the chief aspects of man's 
relationship to that Consciousness. In other words, 
the Science of Ethics can develop into actual, con- 
sistent realization as a Science only in so far as it is 
logical in method ; only in so far as it frankly meets 
and solves the metaphysical problems inevitably aris- 
ing in the course of Ethical investigation; only in so 
far as it is able to present in their vital relations as 
well as in their proper form the psychological aspects 
of its own subject-matter ; only in so far as it clearly 
recognizes and adequately deals with the complex 
Ethical aspects involved in human association ; and 
finally, only in so far as it apprehends, appreciates 
and proves able to rationally represent the theolog- 
ical trend of all Ethical problems. In doing which 
it will carefully maintain its own specific limitations 
in contrast with each and all these sciences. 

(It may be noted here in parenthesis that just as 
Logic is to be regarded as constituting in the stricter 
sense the science of the rhythm of Thought, and as 
Esthetics constitutes what may rightly be called the 
science of the rhythm of Feeling, so Ethics may 
properly be described as the science of the rhythm of 
Conduct. Though it is never to be forgotten that 
Thought and Feeling and Conduct are the absolutely 
interfused and mutually complementary aspects of 
every concrete human life and indeed of all conceiva- 
ble spiritual life.) 



12 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

It is next to be remarked that the essential 
aspects of Ethics are all discoverable through a gen- 
eral (critical) survey of the chief historical forms in 
which the fundamental Ethical conceptions have 
found concrete expression from age to age; and to 
these forms, therefore, it will be well in the next 
place to give some, however brief, consideration. 

IL FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ETHICS. 

Historically, as was but just noticed, the develop- 
ment of an explicit science of Ethics has always pre- 
supposed the Ethical process as already far advanced 
beyond any mere ''beginning." Nor could this 
order be conceived to be reversed, since the unfold- 
ing of any science necessarily presupposes the actual 
existence of the facts of which the science is but the 
reasoned account — not to mention the fact that only 
an Ethical being relatively matured as such is capable 
of any activity resulting in the unfolding of any sci- 
ence, and above all of the science of Ethics as such. 

I. Mythic Aspect. But long before there could 
be a science of Ethics, properly speaking, the Ethical 
consciousness attained expression — as it will never 
cease to attain expression — in mythic form. At the 
basis of all this is the contrast between Light and 
Darkness. Light stimulates the vital process. The 
increased vigor thus attained results in added sense 



FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS. 1 3 

of power, whence arises a feeling of buoyancy. With 
darkness, on the other hand, the vital process is 
lowered. Hence a relative sense of weakness and 
depression. 

Such is the physiological explanation of courage in 
tne Light and of fear in the Darkness. But the spir- 
itual factor involved in these experiences is no less 
real and vital than is the physiological. Indeed there 
can be no experience^ properly speaking, that is not 
itself essentially spiritual in its nature. 

The spiritual factor here referred to consists of 
Personification. The human unit differs primarily 
from the animal unit especially in this : That he 
knows a Past and a Future, and in the very fact of 
knowing them proves able to gather and hold both 
Past and Future in the Present. The actual experi- 
ences of the Past can be known as past only as they 
are present in consciousness through the representa- 
tions of memory. 

The possible experiences of the Future can be 
known as future only as they are present in con- 
sciousness through the representations of Imagina- 
tion. And the representations of Memory and of 
Imagination are constantly interfused in greater or 
less degree even in the relatively critical mind of 
modern man. How much more must this have been 
the case in the uncritical mind of "primitive" man! 
Hence the confident construction on his part of a 



14 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

Past that never was and of a Future that never could 
be. Just as in visual Perception the mind creates 
" images " consisting of form and color and at the 
same time projects these subjective products into 
space and never doubts their objective reality ; so 
primitive man unconsciously mingled human ele- 
ments with elements drawn from nature and in doing 
so created Ethical conceptions which he no less un- 
consciously and confidently projected into a Divine 
world that in turn became to him a model for the 
human world. 

The central, permanent element of truth in all 
this, as the sequel should show, is the identity in type 
as between Divinity and Humanity. 

II. Scientific Aspect. Ethical consciousness 
first attained explicit Scientific utterance in the mouth 
of Socrates. And yet this very struggle toward sci- 
entific definition could not but result in more or less 
of exaggeration ; and here the special form of excess 
consisted in the emphasizing of the importance of 
knowledge as a factor of right-doing until knowledge 
itself became fairly identified with Virtue, instead of 
being clearly recognized in its proper limitation as 
constituting only one of the essential factors of 
Virtue. It is with Aristotle, in fact, that a true 
science of Ethics as such has its beginning. He it is 
who first sees clearly the real clew to a- specific and 
adequate science of human conduct. He, first of all. 



FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS. I 5 

sets out with and steadily pursues an inductive study 
of the facts within this sphere and through such 
study traces out those fundamental relations which 
find their unity in the central principle of conscious 
self-consistency concretely unfolded in a well-poised 
individual human character. Nevertheless, as the facts 
of the Hellenic social world only served to give 
emphasis to the individual, so the Ethics of Aristotle 
is, in reality, simply the Ethics of Individualism, 

If now we turn to the Roman world we find that it 
contributes only indirectly to the development of the 
science of Ethics. At the same time the contribution 
is none the less valid and valuable. For it is noth- 
ing less than the disciplinary conception of conscious 
conformity to principles concretely unfolded in the 
various phases of institutional life. So that here we 
may be said to have the Ethics of Institutionalism. 

(It is, as we may remark in passing, precisely in 
this complete subordination of the Individual to In- 
stitutions that the stoical aspect of Ethical doctrine, 
in its negative character as emphasizing resignation, 
finds its natural and ample ground of development. 
In the later — Christian — world this aspect finds con- 
crete realization in the monastic orders.) 

Again while the ancient Hebrews made no formal 
presentation of Ethics as a science, yet on the other 
hand their whole literature is pervaded with the pro- 
foundly Ethical presupposition (gradually unfolded 



1 6 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

into clear, though still unreflecting, form in the 
national consciousness through the whole course of 
their experience as a people) that all human conduct 
is fundamentally related to the requirements of a 
primal, infinite (and hence absolutely rational) Con- 
sciousness. 

The Individual; Institutions, as involving the imme- 
diate, concrete relations of individual to individual; 
the Ideal of a divinely given (i. e., perfect) Law as the 
absolute standard of human conduct — such are the 
fundamental factors that have fused into organic 
unity in the modern or Christian Ethical Conscious- 
ness. Thus this richer aspect of the Ethical Con- 
sciousness is but the more elaborate unfolding (in- 
fused union) of the earlier germinal forms, all which 
may be found to be included under one or other of 
the three types, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew. 

It is only as such well-balanced, organic unity of 
the earlier and one-sided forms of Ethical Conscious- 
ness that the modern consciousness can deal success- 
fully with the problem of the true Conduct of Life, 
infinitely enhanced as it is in complexity. The modern 
consciousness recognizes more and more clearly that 
continued and unbiased study of human deeds, and 
that alone, can bring into ever clearer, more accurate 
and more adequate (i. e., more truly Scientific) view 
the whole vital sum of significance involved in the 
relations of each individual human being (i) to those 



THE ETHICAL END. 1/ 

fundamental principles which are progressively as- 
suming concrete reality for this world through in- 
stitutional forms, and (2) to that infinitely vital, typical 
and eternally perfect Consciousness manifested every- 
where in and through the infinitely varied aspects of 
the World as a Whole. Thus the modern or Christian 
form of the science of Ethics has unfolded, and must 
continue to unfold, as the actual process of tracing 
out the evidence of the. divine (absolutely rational) 
Law as unfolded in the Individual through the medium 
of Institutions. Only as such concretely rational pro- 
cess can Ethics attain and maintain a genuinely vital 
character. 

III. THE ETHICAL END. 

We have next to notice that throughout the whole 
Ethical process there is necessarily presupposed a defi- 
nite end or aim toward the realization of which every 
act of any and every human being is directed, (i) If 
that end really consists of and is restricted to Pleasure, 
then the Science of Ethics will have for its chief func- 
tion to discover the utmost measure of significance 
denoted by the term Pleasure, and to point the way to 
the fullest attainment of that end. Such, in its sim- 
plest form, is the view known as Hedonism (historically 
the standpoint of the Greek Sophists, and of course 
also, later, of the Epicureans ; though by no means in 
the gross sense commonly supposed). (2) If, again, 
z 



1 8 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

the chief end of human activity is assumea to be the 
securing of universal Well-being then the Science of 
Ethics must have for its task to present a consistent 
and adequate view of what true well-being is, and also 
to unfold a systematic general view of the media essen- 
tial to its realization. In which case the Science of 
Ethics must be of the Utilitarian type (represented in 
modern times especially by J. S. Mill and Prof. Sidg- 
wick). (3) Or it may be that the true aim of human 
conduct is to be found in the fulfillment of Duty ; that 
is, in obedience to a supreme Law as expressive of an 
ultimate, divine Will. And in this we should have 
what may be properly named theological Ethics (the 
philosophical ground of which is developed in its most 
uncompromising form by Kant). (4) If, finally, the 
true end of human conduct should prove to be that of 
the Self-realization of individual man, then the Science 
of Ethics is bound to ascertain first of all as its ulti-^ 
mate prmciple, the true nature of man as man, includ- 
ing all the fundamental aspects of that nature ; and 
having formulated this, its further task must be to 
trace in outline a consistent, reasoned estimate of the 
means and the method necessary to the realization of 
such true end. 

In the former sense our science would be theoretical 
or speculative Ethics. In the latter, practical or applied 
Ethics ; and in this sense its fully elaborated form 
must include an intimation of the fundamental aspects 



THE ETHICAL END. 1 9 

of the special Sciences of Economics and Politics — 
in short, the whole range of what has been com- 
prehensively styled Social Philosophy. (In its spec- 
ulative phase the chief modern representative is T. 
H. Green. Of the practical aspect the fundamental 
principles are strongly outlined — though not with- 
out bias — in Plegel's Philosophie des Rechts.) 

On reflection, indeed, it would seem by no means 
impossible that in the actual process of perfecting 
human life upon the express view of man's ultimate 
nature, there would be realized the fullest possible 
measure of all really pleasurable experience, when the 
whole range of what is to be counted as truly pleasur- 
able is rightly estimated. And further it would seem 
quite possible that in the same process the utmost 
attainable degree of Well-being must also be most cer- 
tainly secured. 

In which case all that is valid in the aims of both 
Hedonism and Utilitarianism must be raised to the 
highest possible degree of significance through a system 
of Ethics based on a thorough-going analysis of human 
nature as manifested in the individual consciousness 
on the one hand and in the history of the race on the 
other. If, further, it should turn out that the indi- 
vidual human consciousness is one in type with the 
ultim.ate, eternally perfect Consciousness manifested 
in every phase of the total World-Order, then it would 
appear that the divine Law as expressive of the ulti- 



20 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

mate and absolutely holy Will, must be involved in 
the very nature of the human Will. And thus it must 
be evident that in the very process of his own self- 
realization man must be fulfilling the divine Law (as 
comprehended in and through Reason) and so, per- 
forming his highest ''duty." 

It can only be remarked here that to assume Pleas- 
ure as the chief end of human life is to reduce the self- 
conscious activity of man to its lowest instead of rais- 
ing it to its highest term. In the very nature of the 
case any given pleasure is but for the moment. The 
merely pleasure-seeking life is therefore necessarily 
an endless search that never ceases from fear and long- 
ing. In other words such ajife is essentially nothing 
else than a more or less prolonged self-contradiction. 
At the same time Utilitarianism, in its highest sense, 
i.e. in the sense of the utmost attainable extent of 
Well-being, is after all simply a ''general-happiness" 
principle which only resolves itself into a more subtle 
Hedonism in which as many individuals as possible 
are conceived as attaining each the highest degree of 
more or less refined pleasure or " happiness." 

On the other hand the actual attainment of self- 
perfection, in whatever degree, must thus far involve 
genuine self-consistency or rhythm of experience — 
that is, it must involve a corresponding measure of 
self-satisfaction. 

And here (let us note carefully), it is the abiding 



THE ETHICAL END. 21 

self that is satisfied, and satisfied the more, the more 
fully and clearly it apprehends as certainly possible 
for itself, unlimited further self-perfection. Whence 
it would seem that only when self-realization is taken 
as the real Ethical end, can the end proposed either by 
Hedonism or by Utilitarianism or by theological Ethics 
be actually attained. If pleasure, if well-being, if 
duty — if either or all these together can be justly re- 
garded as constituting a worthy motive to human 
action then much more may self-realization be justly 
regarded as the one highest and really adequate Ethical 
End, since in the unswerving pursuit of this end and 
in that alone is it possible that even the lower and less 
adequate aims can be surely realized in their truest 
significance. With this understanding, then, there 
need be nothing invidious in designating the System 
of Ethics based on this principle (were the system 
once developed) as Ideal or Rational Ethics. 

Such system has, indeed, long been in process of 
development; each succeeding generation will make 
more or less important contribution to its improve- 
ment ; the system will be ever approximating com- 
pletion ; it will never be actually completed. 

If, now, we reflect upon the profound significance of 
the statement that '' the Kingdom of Heaven is within 
you" — that is, that in the very nature of the case the 
*^ Kingdom of Heaven " is involved in human con- 
sciousness and to be realized only through the pro- 



22 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

gressive unfolding of human consciousness — it 
would seem that the supreme Ethical principle is 
already involved in the dogmatic affirmation : " Seek 
ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness 
and all these things shall be added unto you." For 
this would seem to mean nothing else than this: — 
Comply unreservedly in the whole range of your activity 
to the actual demands of Reason as the eternal form of 
your own true being and all really good things will be 
yours ; for they are but the inevitable result of such 
compliance. 

IV. COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS OF ETHICS. 

We have next to note that from its very nature as 
the Science of human conduct Ethics must at every 
stage present two fundamental and mutually comple- 
mentary aspects. These are (i) the Subjective Aspect 
and (2) the Objective Aspect. 

In the ethical Process these aspects are of course 
coincident and even absolutely interfused; for they 
are but correlative phases of human life. On the 
other hand in the formulation of the science of Ethics 
these complementary aspects can only be treated 
serially. It is evident, too, that since the subjective 
aspect consists of the individual character as the ethical 
unit strictly speaking, this aspect properly falls to be 
considered first in the formal unfolding of the Science. 



COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS OF ETHICS. 23 

For the objective aspect consists of the fundamental 
relations between individual and individual ; and the 
scientific consideration of these relations must there- 
fore presuppose, as something already explicitly un- 
folded, the results of a critical and more or less 
adequate consideration of the essential nature of the 
individual character constituting the type of ethical 
units so related. It is here, indeed, that Ethics is 
found to be in closest relation with Psychology. In 
the latter science the most comprehensive term is 
Consciousness. In Ethics the most comprehensive 
term is Conscience which is simply consciousness in its 
ethical aspect. Again while Psychology restricts itself 
to the simple (but reasoned) representation of the 
whole individual mind, preserving, as far as possible, 
perfect balance of all its modes ; Ethics, on the con- 
trary, singles out the Will as that mode of mind 
which predominates in all human conduct, makes a 
special study of mind in that mode, and carries its 
investigation over into the sphere of the relations 
between individual and individual. But while in the 
latter respect Ethics is contrasted with Psychology it 
still presents further phases of close relationship to 
this science in the fact that, besides constantly pre- 
supposing the results of psychological investigation, 
it must still take up certain aspects of mind and press 
their analysis beyond what is required in Psychology 
properly speaking. This is especially true in respect 



24 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

of that fundamental quality of mind known as Virtue 
and which presents its essential phase of differentia- 
tion in the so-called ''Virtues." 

Finally, the objective aspect of Ethics unfolds into 
a systematic (and reasoned) statement of the essential 
Rights and Duties of the individual human being (as 
involved in his relations to other individuals) together 
with an analysis of the fundamental forms through 
which these aspects of human life are brought into 
ever richer degrees of realization. 

It is in this sphere that Ethics is found to expand 
inevitably so as to include the whole of Social Philos- 
ophy in so far as the special subject of consideration 
is that of the fundamental relations between person 
and person (i) in Property, (2) in the Family and (3) 
in the State. At the same time Ethics must take into 
consideration (4) those special relations between per- 
son and person involved in the institution of the 
Church and in the special ends sought to be attained 
through that institution. Whence it is evident that 
here also the science of Ethics tends to fuse with 
that of Theology. The central interest giving rise to 
association in the church is that of the ultimate 
nature and destiny of man. The highest form of the 
practical unfolding of this interest constitutes Re- 
ligion. 

The science of the principles determining the rela- 
tions thus involved constitutes Theology. This in 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 2^ 

turn reflects back upon the civil aspect of human 
relations and gives them a distinctly theological trend. 

Hence there is nothing surprising in the fact that 
systems of Ethics have been developed under the 
specific designation of Theological Ethics (e. g. that 
of Rothe.) 

Note, finally, that Rights and Duties are relations; 
and, as will appear later on, not merely mutually 
complementary relations, but mutually complementary 
aspects of 07te and the same relation. And this is 
true, not of one but of all ethical relations properly 
speaking. Every Right is also a Duty. Every Duty 
is also a Right. 

A, SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 

I. Conscience. Human conduct is really ethical 
only in so far as it involves the factor of Conscious- 
ness. The mind is a unit of Energy, one and indi- 
visible. It is at once a Power-to-know, a Power-to-do, 
and a Power-to-feel. And in all these aspects of its 
actual concrete existence it is in greater or less degree 
aware of itself or ''conscious." But as Will (that is, as 
a Power-to-do) mind exhibits the characteristic of con- 
sciousness in a peculiar form. Here the conscious- 
ness is of a relation between a standard apprehended 
as objectively valid on the one hand, and some action 
already performed, or contemplated as possible to be 
performed by the individual himself on the other. 



26 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

The peculiarity of the aspect of consciousness here 
manifested is that it consists not merely in the recog- 
nition of the given relation, but that it involves the rec- 
ognition of a binding quality in the relation, such that 
the individual feels as well as sees that the action (per- 
formed or proposed) is inherently right or wrong — 
that its essential tendency is for good ox for evil in his 
own individual life, that its effect is necessarily either 
constructive or destructive to the very being, and above 
all to the 7£/^//-being, of the one performing the action. 
Indeed, to this phase of Consciousness it is always 
in greater or less degree apparent that the ///-being 
of the individual must ultimately mean the same as 
his no7i-h€\x\g (in the sense of utter negation). 

It is in this peculiar character that Consciousness 
properly bears the name of Conscience and that it proves 
to involve this further characteristic — that it prompt? 
the individual to the performance of a given proposed 
action or restrains him from its performance. So 
that, as already noted, Conscience is seen to be in 
truth just the ethical aspect of Consciousness. 

(In this connection it is well worth while to note 
that since Conscience is not merely intellectual, but 
that it also involves Feeling and Will; and since it can 
never be said to pertain to Feeling alone or toWill alone 
— for thus it would exclude the intellectual factor, with- 
out which nothing whatever could be known of its 
existence — then in every case it is evident that the 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 2^ 

absolute unity of the mind is seen to be emphasized 
in high degree not merely by consciousness in general 
but also by its specially ethical aspect, Conscience.) 

We personify Conscience and '' listen to its dic- 
tates;" rejoice in its ^^ approval " or suffer from its 
"stings"; we follow its "promptings" or heed its 
"warnings." In reality, the truth felt-after in such 
forms of expression is that in its complex unity the 
mind apprehends '^(intellectually) with greater or less 
clearness an objective standard by which to measure 
its own processes; that the realization by the mind 
in its own being (through volitional activity) of the 
ideal presented in that standard necessarily results in 
a special state of such mind consisting of a sense 
(feeling) of inner rhythm or of dissonance; and 
further that even the mere subjective representation 
of this process of realizing the given ideal in and for 
one's self is sufficient to awaken a lively sense of 
rhythm or of dissonance. 

But also it is to be noted that, as the ethical aspect 
of Consciousness, Conscience is primarily crude and is 
always liable to perversion as well as to arrest of 
development; just as, on the other hand, there is pos- 
sibility of indefinite elaboration and refinement of all 
its positive ethical values through nurture and educa- 
tion. 

Conscience, let us note further, is not a *' faculty" 
of the mind. (In truth, there are no " faculties," but 



28 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

only modes of the mind, the mind itself being, as 
already observed, an indivisible unit of Energy.) 
On the contrary Conscience is a fundamental aspect of 
mind in its totality, and hence it must in greater or 
less degree be present as an essential factor in each 
and every one of the modes of mind. 

The extreme view, even yet so widely accepted, to 
the effect that Conscience is a kind of supernaturally 
given and initially perfect '' guide " and which there- 
fore is incapable (and wholly without need) of educa- 
tion need here be mentioned only to point out the 
fact (evident enough to the reflective mind) that such 
extreme view is possible only upon condition of 
imperfect knowledge of the deep-reaching significance 
which heredity bears in the development of human 
character. And yet, on the other hand, it is not to 
be overlooked that glimpses of the truth that the 
character of the individual is dependent primarily 
upon descent are clearly manifest in many ways in 
all literature (Hebrew and Christian included). Above 
all is it manifest in the deeply significant but much 
misunderstood doctrine of "Original Sin." 

Doubtless at the very moment of birth the indi- 
vidual human being is already a real mind with already 
well defined tendencies, the determining factors of 
which reach back through an unbroken chain to 
the "first parents" of such being. But by the very 
complexity of the process of descent it is also evi- 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 29 

dent that great differences must exist between one 
and another such being, even at the moment of birth. 
So that many a child has " by nature," (i. e. from 
birth) a refined sense of the ethical fitness of things, 
such as many another would be wholly unable to 
attain through a life-time of discipline. 

On the contrary, however, it is evident that at the 
best the "innate " (in the sense of the inherited) Con- 
science is but elementary and merely instinctive in 
its character, and that therefore it needs to be awak- 
ened into reflection and self-criticism, so that the solu- 
tion of ethical problems may be reached knowingly 
and not merely through the ethical consciousness in 
its purely rudimentary form. The Conscience that 
i^ not enlightened — that is, unfolded to the degree of 
deliberate, rational self-examination — is still crude in 
fact however refined and delicate it may outwardly 
appear. Only when the Conscience is at once both 
practically developed so as to insure right action and 
also enlightened to such degree that the individual is 
" able to give a [really valid] reason for the faith that 
is in him" — only then can the Conscience be rightly 
regarded as matured and trustworthy. It is just the 
deliberate, persistent neglect to realize one's self as a 
rational, self-conscious unit — it is precisely this that 
constitutes the fact of '' Original Sin." No doubt this 
is a negative "fact." But then all sin consists in 
negation, either by way of neglect to realize some 



30 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

possible form of the essentially Good in man or in 
nullifying one or another of its actually realized forms. 
And since Conscience, as the ethical aspect of Con- 
sciousness, is in its very nature necessarily the ultimate 
practical *' guide" in all human conduct, it is evidently 
impossible to overestimate the practical importance 
of the fullest possible cultivation and rationalization 
of Conscience. Meanwhile, for our present purpose, 
the full significance of Conscience can be brought 
into clear view only through a careful analysis of the 
mind considered as Will. 

II. The Will. And here we have to notice at the 
outset that the discussion in detail of the more specific 
character and functions of the Mind as Will, together 
with the special relations which the Will necessarily 
sustains to the other modes of mind is a distinctly 
psychological task. Nevertheless, since Ethics as a 
Science is just the science of human conduct, and 
since all human conduct consists of nothing else than 
the endlessly complex forms in which the human 
mind, as Will, manifests and realizes itself, it is evi- 
dent that a Science of Ethics from which all considera- 
tion of the Will were excluded would be simply a 
contradiction in terms. And further, it is to be care- 
fully noted that the ethical significance of any act of 
the Mind as Will depends in any given case upon 
whether the given act really has its origin within such 
mind or whether the origin of the act is to be sought 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 3 1 

for beyond that mind. Only an act that is really de- 
termined by and within a given individual Will can 
rightly be taken as a valid ground for an ethical 
judgment concerning such Will. Only as the actual 
determiner of change (whether within or without 
itself) can the mind be properly regarded as an ethi- 
cal unit at all. The moment the individual is con- 
ceived as merely instrumental in any given process, 
that moment it becomes clearly inconceivable that 
any ethical significance should attach to the part taken 
by the individual in such process. 

Hence to ascertain precisely the manner in which 
the Will (that is, the Mind as Will,) is determined to 
activity must be of vital significance to the Science of 
Ethics. If, indeed, it could be shown that all acts^ of 
the Will are determined by some cause lying wholly 
beyond the Will, then a Science of Ethics, strictly 
speaking, must be impossible; for thus the human 
Will would prove to be devoid of ethical significance; 
there would be no known ethical unit, and hence no 
real content for a science of ethics. 

Thus while the investigation of the Will in its entire 
range constitutes one fundamental part of the entire 
task of psychology, it is evident that the science of 
ethics must also take into consideration the funda- 
mental nature of the Will; though for this science the 
central, vital question is manifestly that of the precise 
manner in which the Will is determined to activity — 



32 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

that is, whether it is self-determined or determined by 
an external agency or agencies. In its traditional 
form the question is: Whether the Will is free or 
whether it is compelled to activity by an external 
power or powers. From this point of view it is Free- 
dom or Necessity that is to be predicated absolutely of 
the Will. And from this point of view doubtless no 
really scientific answer can ever be attained. 

Now the question of the original determination of 
the Will may take either of two forms. In the one 
form the question is historical and the search for its 
answer is resolved into a study of the process through 
which the individual Will actually arises and unfolds 
to (or rather toward) maturity. 

In its other form the question is metaphysical (in 
the true sense of that term) and the search for its 
answer then assumes the nature of a specially careful 
and searching critical study of the ultimate character- 
istics seen to be necessarily implied in the known 
peculiar phenomena of the Will. In the former case the 
method of inquiry is of course predominantly induc- 
tive (i.e. observational) ; in the latter it is predomin- 
antly deductive (i.e. inferential). But it is also a 
matter of course (as the mutually complementary 
sciences of logic and metaphysics make plain) that 
neither of these methods can in any case be pursued to 
the entire exclusion of the other. Rather are they 
simply the complementary aspects of all true scientific 
method. 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 33 

Pursuance of the inquiry in its historical form has 
resulted in the discovery of a chain of evidence 
strongly tending to justify, if not absolutely justify- 
ing, the conclusion that man is but the culmination 
of an evolutional process, including the whole animal 
kingdom at the least. Such evidence seems further 
to justify the conclusion that when this process is 
looked at in inverse order it is seen to have its begin- 
nings in the interplay of merely mechanical and chem- 
ical forces. Again it is he brain which specially 
serves as the structural form directly organic to mind, 
while mind is itself a mere function of the brain. 

Hence it would seem that the individual mind is 
predetermined by the whole course of evolution lead- 
ing up to, and culminating in the existence of, such 
mind. Such, in briefest intimation, is the result ar- 
rived at by the extreme evolutionary school of 
scientists; and of course the inevitable corollary from 
such conclusion is that Freedom is a mere illusion 
when regarded as a characteristic of the individual 
human Will. So that in strict logical consistency this 
school must wholly dispense with ethics as a science, 
since they have eliminated all real ethical content 
from human activity. 

On the other hand the metaphysical aspect of the 

question cannot be wholly excluded. It needs but 

a little deliberate reflection to see that a higher 

(more complex) form of existence can really have 

3 



34 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

its origin in a lower (less complex) form or series 
of forms only upon this condition: That a highest 
(i. e. most complex) unit of Energy works with con- 
sistency of purpose in, and manifests itself through 
(and throughout) the whole process leading up to the 
final result. And if this result consists of a mind in 
one or another stage of its evolution, then there is 
presupposed as the origin and essence of the whole 
evolutional process, a primal, perfect, and hence eter- 
nal and eternally self-unfolding Mind. The evolu- 
tion of mind, in whatever degree, necessarily presup- 
poses Mind in perfect degree. And Mind in perfect 
degree is conceivable only as independent of all 
external conditions. It is conceivable only as includ- 
ing in its own Consciousness every phase of rational 
relation and of rational purpose. It must therefore 
be self-poised and self-active in absolute degree. 

To nothing less than such perfect Mind can the 
descent of man be legitimately (that is, by any strictly 
scientific process) traced. 

Consideration of the metaphysical aspect of the 
question, then, would seem to justify us in concluding 
that as man (in so far as he is mind) must be conceived 
as descended from (that is, as arising through, and 
constituting the culminating aspect of) the creative 
self-unfolding of the primal perfect Mind, he must be 
credited with fundamentally the same characteristics 
as those inhering in the primal Mind itself. 

And it has just been noted that self-activity — that 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 35 

is, self-determination — is the central characteristic of 
that Mind. 

How this characteristic can be conceived as unfold- 
ing into reality in man — in other words, how man as 
man can be conceived as actually coming into existence 
— this again pertains to the historical aspect of the 
question as to the way in which the human Will is 
actually determined. It is of course impossible here 
to more than barely indicate the chief aspects of the 
question together with the central conclusions which 
it seems possible to reach by inquiry along these lines. 

Let us note in the first place that by the very con- 
ception of a mind evolved through the process of 
heredity each mind must be unique in the actual degree 
and in the special trend of its development. 

Its actual relations are therefore also unique. Hence 
its reactions upon tfie stimuli it receives from its envi- 
ronment cannot be a mere repetition of reactions of 
any of its ancestors upon the then existing environ- 
ment. It is at any moment appealed to by many 
forms of stimuli and in any given case responds to 
bnt one. As mind its reactions upon stimuli involve 
intellectual estimate as well as mere ixiomentary impulse 
or feeling. But intellectual estimate consists in com- 
parison — in holding two or more representations in 
consciousness as forms of possible activity and result ; 
and this in such way as not merely to compare the 
forms themselves, but also so as to compare the results 



36 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

of realizing the two forms through one's own individ- 
ual action and in one's own individual experience. 
Further, while in such comparison the activity of the 
mind may be said primarily to take place in time, it 
is also evident that in all its intellectual representations 
of possible actions the mind takes up the form of suc- 
cession (time) into its own activity. Or rather it may 
be said to unfold that form in the very process of its 
own activity, seeing that it apprehends the order of suc- 
cession necessary in a given represented series of acts. 
Nay in this very fact of representing to itself a series 
the mind includes past and future in the present, and 
thus transcends time as a mere succession of activities. 
The mind is not a stretched-out chain of experiences; 
it is a present, self-unfolding totality of experiences. 

I am now aware of what happened to me yesterday : 
and I am now aware of it because whatever has passed 
hitherto in my consciousness is now present in its 
results in my actual individual (and that means indi- 
visible) conscious existence. My own consciousness is 
always the central factor in every experience I have. 
That factor (emphasizing as it does the indissoluble, 
absolutely continuous unity of my existence) is, indeed, 
always undergoing modification in extent, in clearness, 
in intensity. But it is ever for me the one possible 
measure of both itself and all other things. (Even 
when I refer most deliberately to an objectively valid 
standard I do so, and can do so, only through the fact 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 3/ 

that I have taken up into my own consciousness, as one 
aspect of it, precisely that standard. In becoming 
aware of it I recognize it as independent of my con- 
sciousness ; but also in becoming aware of it I appro- 
priate it as a fact of my consciousness.) As a conscious 
unit the mind does indeed respond to stimuli coming 
from without, but it responds, and must respond, in 
its own way. That is, it must, from its very nature as 
a deliberative unit, decide between one and another 
possible way of responding to such stimuli. And in 
just this process of deciding between the various 
apprehended ways of responding to these stimuli 
(which as represented in consciousness constitute 
motives) the mind proves itself to be, from its very con- 
stitution as mind, a self-active, self-determining unit 
of Energy. 

Indeed, while it deliberates, and in the very fact that 
it deliberates, upon a given course of action it refrains 
from such course of action. And this very refraining 
from action is itself a form of self-activity, of self-de- 
termination. Nor can it be too strongly insisted upon 
that it is precisely in such process that the mind proves 
to be always in its essential, typical nature the one 
truly self-active, and therefore Ethical unit, and that 
this typical nature progressively unfolds into realiza- 
tion in each normal {i.e., law-abiding) individual Will. 

And this conclusion is confirmed by a study of mind 
in all its relations, sensuous, social, and cosmic. The 



38 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

higher the degree of Will considered the more unques- 
tionable becomes the conclusion. 

At the very beginning of its own particular existence 
no doubt the individual mind is merely initial. Its 
typical nature is as yet, for it, mainly an abstract form, 
a mere unfulfilled possibility. But every normal reac- 
tion upon the environment, in its character of a 
rational World-Order, only tends to fulfil that possi- 
bility and thus empirically to demonstrate in ever 
higher degree the validity of the abstractly conceived 
universal or typical form. 

It is next to be noted that in the entire process of 
its self-unfolding the individual mind as Will, no less 
than in its character as Intelligence, necessarily pre- 
sents both a subjective and an objective aspect. At 
the same time only the barest intimation can be given 
here of the distinction between, and the extent of, 
these two phases of the Will — phases which, in their 
various degrees of realization, may be designated 
respectively as subjective Freedom and objective Freedom. 

When I deliberate and compare any two forms of 
representation in my own mind I am by that very fact 
controlling the modes of myself as mind. That is, in 
such case my activity, whatever its extent, is in its 
nature self-activity. 

It is such inner self-activity that constitutes subjec- 
tive freedom. 

But the representations developed in, as modes of, 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 39 

my mind and held in consciousness by my own delib- 
erate (and deliberative) act may yet have direct refer- 
ence to my practical relation to one or another phase 
of my environment. 

I compare a past action with a proposed action and 
infer the character of the results to be expected in case 
the proposed action is really performed. 

This inference is now a new mode in (and of) my 
own mind and becomes a positive factor in determin- 
ing me to act (or to refrain from acting) in the way 
proposed. 

Whence it is evident that my practical relation to 
my environment is thus far determined by my own 
practical self-definition (/.<f., self-differentiation) as 
toward any given aspect which such environment may 
present to me. In my response to stimuli coming to 
me from my environment I not only apprehend this 
as it is, but I also, through the interfusion of the par- 
ticular mode immediately formed in my mind through 
such response with similar modes already unfolded in 
my own consciousness through past experiences, create 
an ideal of what the environment is not but which I 
conceive it ought to be. And in pursuance of such 
conception I proceed to exert my power toward shap- 
ing the environment into conformity with the ideals I 
have created. In other words I carry my creative 
activity into the world (physical and social) by which 
I am surrounded and in and through which I live and 



40 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

move and have my being. It is the immediate source 
of my life. And yet through my reaction upon the 
stimuli coming from this source my life rises to a 
degree which can and does in greater or less measure 
control and reconstitute that world. And further, it 
is precisely in this fact that the individual mind reveals 
its truly practical, creative character as one in type 
with the ultimate divine Source of all Life and above 
all of all Mind as the culminating phase of Life. 

It is in this world-controlling, world-reconstituting 
activity that the human mind as Will is concretely 
unfolded and in which it exhibits progressively what 
may properly be named Objective Freedom. 

At the same time the limitations of actually attained 
freedom, whether subjective or objective, in the case 
of any individual human Will are evident enough. On 
the other hand it is equally evident that actual freedom 
is to be attained, and only to be attained, through con- 
formity to the laws inhering in the very nature of mind. 
I can wte/dtht world only in so far as I comprehend \\\.^ 
world. I must assimilate the world in my intelligenec 
in order that as a Will I may appropriate it to myself. 
I must know the reason of things (and Reason is of 
their very essence) before I can command them into 
forms expressive of my own reason. It is only as I 
think the Thought of the World, out of (and yet within) 
which I as a thinking unit have arisen ; it is only as I 
will the Will involved in the infinite Thought of that 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 4 1 

World, that I give objective proof of my own free- 
dom, which proof consists in my creatively moulding 
the world into my own image and likeness. But also 
it is only by forgetting myself in fullest obedience to 
the Eternal, divine Law of the World that I can, even 
little by little, attain actual self-realization including 
the fundamental aspect of freedom both subjective and 
objective. Only by losing the life of caprice can I 
find the life of Reason. In this fundamental sense 
no one ever was or could be born free, for Freedom is 
the goal, the culmination of disciplined self-conscious 
being. 

Absolutely free in point of essential nature every 
mind must be. Absolutely free in point of perfect 
realization only one can be, and that is the Eternal, 
perfect Mind. 

Ill Virtue and the Virtues. If in its universal 
form as a Power-to-do, Mind as Will is seen to be the 
one really ethical unit, then evidently it is well worth 
while to inquire more precisely what are the positive 
phases in which such ethical unit is to realize its 
actual existence. And first it may be noted that as 
Conscience is the ethical aspect of Consciousness so 
Virtue maybe said to be the name applied to the Will 
as already become concretely unfolded. Virtue is 
concrete; it is concretely differentiated Will. Again 
it may be said that Virtue consists in a normal life — 
that is, it consists in practical and progressive con- 



42 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

formity on the part of the individual to the universal 
norm or type of human life. That norm may be re- 
garded as consisting of the absolute demands of Rea- 
son; or again it may be conceived as being identi- 
cal with the "divine Law." For these can really be 
scientifically conceived in no other way than as iden- 
tical. Observe, too, that only through conformity to 
the true norm of life can the individual develop real 
force of character, in which Virtue actually consists. 

But this universal aspect of Virtue can be really 
unfolded into concrete form only through differenti- 
ation into those specific aspects or modes called '^ the 
Virtues." And here it is to be noticed that true Vir- 
tue, or realized harmony with the divine Law of Rea- 
son, implies (i) knowledge of that Law and (2) obe- 
dience to that Law. Virtue can be conceived as 
pertaining to no other being than one characterized 
at once by Intelligence and by Will. The first of these 
is realized as knowledge of the essential aspects of 
rhythm in the total World-Order. This rhythm again 
may be described as unison {a) in the physical aspects 
of the World-Order, and [b) in its spiritual aspects. It 
is (as need hardly be said) within the range of the 
spiritual aspects of the World- Order that Virtue finds 
its true field of practical exercise and actual develop- 
ment. Nevertheless all knowledge has of itself an 
ethical aspect, since it cannot be separated from an 
appreciation (in the form of feeling) of the various 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 43 

aspects of the rhythm of the World- Order. Beauty 
and sublimity are not merely seen, they are also felt. 
The unison everywhere manifest in the total World- 
Energy is not merely apprehended, it is also trusted. 
But thus far we have only the contemplative aspect 
of Virtue — the mere intellectual apprehension of the 
rhythm of the World-Order, together with the experi- 
ence of simple pleasure in it as thus apprehended. 
It is the complement of this — the active effort to 
reproduce that rhythm in human life — with which 
Ethics has chiefly to do. In this sense Virtue may be 
defined as actual obedience, in the concrete form of 
genial responsiveness in practical life, to the demands 
of the divine Law of Reason (positively, to do what 
that law demands; negatively, to refrain from doing 
what it forbids). From this point of view Virtue is 
seen to present three fundamental and mutually com- 
plementary aspects. These are (i) Temperance or 
self-restraint; (2) Courage or assured sense of power; 
and (3) Justice or disposition toward the deliberate 
self-restrained exercise of power to the recognized 
end of the actual unfolding of rational life in and 
through the individual Will. We may regard these as 
the generic aspects of Virtue within the sphere of 
Ethics strictly speaking (which does not explicitly treat 
of the special aspects of Virtue known as "theologi- 
cal," however much these aspects may be presupposed 
in every phase of ethical inquiry). Only the barest inti- 



44 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

mation can here be given of the further differentiation 
of Virtue into its various specific forms constituting 
the so-called Virtues. All '^Virtues," let it be ob- 
served, are necessarily individual in character and so- 
cial in their manifestation. 

A. Temperance constitutes primarily the negative 
aspect of Virtue. It consists essentially in self- 
control. 

1. As individual, Temperance is (^) Restraint of the 
physical appetites within the limits (i) of physical 
health and (2) of the complete subordination of the 
physical nature as organ or instrument to the spiritual 
nature as agent. Again {b) it is Restraint of the 
spiritual appetites (all forms of egoism) within the 
limits (i) of psychical health and (2) of complete sub- 
ordination of the lower (less complex, poorer,) to the 
higher (more complex, richer,) spiritual aims. (The 
chief, all-inclusive aim of life is Life itself — life in 
ever richer degree; self-realization in the highest, /. e, 
most adequate, sense of the term.) 

2. As social, Temperance is {a) Restraint of physi- 
cal appetites within the limits of rights in property 
and of rights of personal security, comfort and purity 
on the part of others. Such restraint is manifest 
under the forms of Truthfulness, Honesty, Civility, 
Chastity, etc. 

Again, as social. Temperance is (h) Restraint of 
spiritual appetites (the various subtler forms of egoism 



SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 45 

— amounting to egotism — such as Pride, Haughtiness, 
Arrogance) within the limits of respect due to the per- 
sonahty (that is, to the ideal or divinely constituted 
nature) of all others. (^' Be a person and respect 
others as persons.'') — Such restraint is manifest under 
the forms of Modesty, Gentleness, Delicacy, Amia- 
bility, Sympathy, Forbearance, etc. 

B. Courage is Virtue in \l^ positive aspect. 

1. As individual, {a) it is rationally directed physi- 
cal energy — the buoyant sense of physical power 
to shape external conditions (the sensuous environ- 
ment) into forms that shall serve as efficient means to 
the highest spiritual life of the individual. But also 
{b) it is rationally directed spiritual energy — the buoy- 
ant sense of spiritual power to shape one's own reso- 
lutions in conformity with Right (that is, in conform- 
ity with the ultimate, divine Reason). — The special 
forms here are Sincerity, Propriety, Conscientious- 
ness, etc. 

2. As social, Courage is (<^) rationally directed phys- 
ical energy— the buoyant sense of physical power (i) 
negatively, to defend one's family, one's country, 
against all unjust attack (to hinder the irrational 
shaping of the environment), and (2) positively, to 
contribute to the improvement of these institutional 
media for self-realization on the part of the indi- 
vidual. Here the special forms are Bravery, Reso- 
luteness, Discretion, etc. 



46 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS, 

As social, Courage is also {b) rationally directed 
spiritual energy — the buoyant sense of spiritual power 
(i) negatively to convince others of error and (2) 
positively to win them to the acceptance of rational 
modes of life. — The special forms here are Im- 
partiality, Candor, Dignity, etc. 

The preceding Virtues (aspects of Virtue) are found 
again and finally, to present their concrete unity in 

C. Justice, which is realized rational life, individual 
and social — that is, human life, conformed to the 
demands of Reason. Such, in briefest intimation, are 
the leading characteristics of the subjective aspect of 
Ethics. (And here we may name the three *' theolog- 
ical Virtues" — Faith, Hope and Love — as in truth 
the factors that really transfigure life — Faith in the 
divine [rational] order of the world ; Hope, of end- 
lessly progressive self-realization ; and Love, in the 
sense of devotion to the purpose of aiding others 
toward the same self-realization.) 

And yet, even in so inadequate a sketch as the 
one here presented, it has already many times become 
evident that the subjective aspect must be meaningless 
and impossible of realization save through its correlative 
objective aspect. Human life cannot be realized in 
individual form only. The individual is no more pos- 
sible without society than is society without the indi- 
vidual. Hence any attempt to develop a system of 
ethical science must, either explicitly or implicitly, take 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 47 

into account this reciprocal relation of the two aspects 
involved. Thus far, indeed, the scientific treatises on 
Ethics have chiefly emphasized the subjective aspect, 
while on the other hand in oui time much is coming 
to be said of so-called practical Ethics; by which 
term, as would seem, it is intended to put chief stress 
on what is here called the objective aspect of Ethics. 
In real truth both aspects are equally '^ practical " and, 
as just insisted, they are so intimately related as to be 
absolute reciprocals in every phase and degree of 
actual life. And hence in any consistent and adequate 
system of Ethics considered as the science of Right- 
living this reciprocal relation between the subjective 
and the objective aspects of actual moral life must of 
course be brought into clearest possible relief. 

B. OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 

It is within the sphere of the subjective aspect of 
Ethics that the proper place is found for the consid- 
eration of Virtue and its various specialized phases, 
*^ the Virtues." On the other hand the formal in- 
vestigation of Rights and Duties falls as manifestly 
within the sphere of the objective aspect of Ethics. 
Or rather these constitute the central, essential signifi- 
cance of that aspect. Rights and duties are relations 
between human beings. Or strictly speaking Right 
and Duty are but complementary aspects of each and 
every relation subsisting between human beings. 



48 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

What is B's right is A's duty; and conversely what 
is B's duty is A's right. Further, B's actual perform- 
ance of his own duty to A is a necessary condition of 
B's own highest interest. In which sense B's duty is 
also B's right. Again B's right is a necessary con- 
dition to his being able to perform his full duty to A. 
Hence B's right is at the same time B's duty. I have 
a right to perform all my real duties ; and it is my duty 
to realize all my essential rights. Only through the 
interfusion of Right and Duty can either Right or 
Duty be more than the merest abstraction. The 
objective aspect of Ethics, then, has to do with the 
various forms through which all associated human 
activity is expressed. And these forms consist of the 
various institutions to which human society has 
given rise and through which human society has 
unfolded. They are (i) Property, (2) the Family, 
(3) the State, (4) the School and (5) the Church. 
Ethics in its strictly constructive character as a science 
has not to describe or account for these institutions. 
Its task is to trace their significance as media in the 
unfolding of the human spirit. And before proceed- 
ing to indicate the analysis of these several institu- 
tional forms it may be remarked that Property presents 
the form of relation of individual to individual and 
to the community through things; that the Family 
constitutes the form of direct relation of individual to 
individual and of the individual to a limited group 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 49 

bound together by the (mainly instinctive) bond of 
consanguinity; that the State consists of an organic- 
ally realized system of relations between individual 
and individual and between the individual and the 
community irrespective of ties of consanguinity, the 
end being the present security and well-being of the 
citizens; that the School has for its ethical end to 
clarify the conscience of the individual and thus to 
secure consistent, self-conscious, deliberate right- 
doing on his part; and finally that the Church (in its 
strictly ethical character) is the progressively realized 
system of relations between individual and individual 
and between each individual and the object of worship 
so far as the latter phase of relationship is unfolded 
through the community. Here the end is evidently 
the ideal ultimate security and well-being of the in- 
dividual members of the community. 

Evidently, then. Ethics presents an Economic and 
a Social as well as a religious and theological aspect; 
just as, on the other hand. Economics, Social Philo- 
sophy and Theology are essentially ethical in char- 
acter and may be classed as specialized departments 
of the science of Ethics in its wider range. 

Without further preliminary the following is offered 
as a condensed analysis of the various essential phases 
of the objective aspect of Ethics. 

I. Property. Here two phases are presented in 
contrast one with the other. 
4 



50 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

A. Positive Aspect. The first of these phases is 
that in which the Will expresses itself in things as 
Property; and here there are three distinct degrees of 
the adequacy in which the Will finds expression in 
and through things. 

(i) The first of these degrees consists in the mere 
appropriation of objects pertaining to the physical 
world (including animals). Here it is necessarily pre- 
supposed that any object thus appropriated pertains 
as yet to the '' Unclaimed Bounty of Nature." Other- 
wise there must be developed the Ethical contradic- 
tion of conflicting claims on the part of two Wills 
each seeking self-realization. 

Thus it is at onoe evident that in every case of such 
appropriation the individual Will, in the very fact of 
such appropriation, really assumes a specifically new re- 
lation to each and every other Will. For such act of 
appropriation necessarily presupposes the consent of 
all other Wills. Not otherwise can the act itself be 
accomplished nor its result (possession) be maintained. 

(2) But possession implies use, and use again im- 
plies adaptation — that is Modification in form or in 
quality, or in both form and quality, of the thing ap- 
propriated. Such modification is the visible expres- 
sion of the individual Will as guided by a purpose. 
Such purpose, again, is an Ideal; and the modifica- 
tion of the given thing (thus reduced to the grade of 
mere '' Material ") consists in shaping it into con- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 5 1 

formity with the given Ideal. The result is an imple- 
ment (answering the demands of Utility) or an art- 
work (answering the demand for the Beautiful). And 
it is not to be overlooked that both are but media in 
the self-realization of mind and have no other real signifi- 
cance. In such work of transformation the expression 
of Will is of a highly complex character; and this for 
the reason that there is involved therein a distinctly 
higher degree of maturity of Will. And this means 
that a more adequate practical definition (in the sense 
of self-differentiation) of Will has been attained 
through greater clearness and complexity and force of 
intellectual activity; and not only so, but in every 
phase of work within this entire sphere the individual 
Will is brought into specially close and complex rela- 
tion with other Wills. 

On the one hand in working out his own purposes 
the individual is constantly appealing to others for 
recognition of his skill as expressed in the forms he 
gives to the " Material" at his disposal. On the other 
hand the very ideals which the individual endeavors 
to work out into full measure of Reality are after all 
not merely his ideals. Rather does he appropriate 
ideals already formed through the experience of the 
race. At most he but modifies and recombines such 
race-formed ideals. « Through such work the person- 
ality of the individual becomes conformed to that of 
the race. 



52 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

(3) A Still further and higher degree in the devel- 
opment of Will by means of Property is attained 
through the medium of a recognized Sign. An ex- 
ample of the simplest form of such sign may be found 
in a brand, as on cattle, or in the name on a package 
to be delivered (the latter being a form applicable to 
all merchandise). Such mark is the effective outei 
form of the Will throughout all civilized countries. 
On the other hand the most adequate form of the 
Sign as the outer form of the Will is that of the Z>eed 
as an instrument giving formal expression to the rela- 
tion subsisting between an individual Will and the col- 
lective Will of the whole community — that is, the 
State. And this formal expression of such relation is 
to the effect that the individual is formally recognized 
as having exclusive right to hold and use during his 
pleasure (but subject to taxation) a given portion of 
land. And since all commodities are obtained from 
the land it is evident that the Deed is the form guar- 
anteeing to the individual the right to the prime orig- 
inal means of his own physical self-preservation, which 
in turn is but the condition precedent to his own 
self-maturing as a self-conscious unit. The land is 
^'' reaV property — the permanent, real Possibility of 
all possible forms of property. Hence all activity of 
the individual in respect of property must refer ulti- 
mately to land. But the act of the individual is a 
deed — the outer, organic form of his Will, And be- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 53 

cause assured possession in use of land is necessary to 
a production of property of any kind whatever, it is 
evidently indispensable to the existence of society 
as the necessary medium for the self-realization of 
the individual that the universal Will of the com- 
munity should assume a clearly defined objective 
form, assuring to the individual such undisturbed use 
of a given portion of land. It is just this clearly de- 
fined objective, organic form of the communal Will in 
such case that is properly and significantly called a 
Deed. It is the form or instrument in which indi- 
vidual Will and communal Will coincide. 

But thus far we have only intimated the essential 
ways in which Will may realize itself through and 
embody itself in Property. This is but the positive 
aspect of the ethical import of Property. The nega- 
tive aspect is next to be noticed. 

B. Negative Aspect. This negative aspect consists 
in Modes of withdrawing the Will from things as Prop- 
erty. 

(i) As in the positive aspect the simplest phase is 
mere appropriation; so in the negative aspect the 
simplest phase is the mere abandonment of what is 
already in possession. And here it is essential to 
notice that the abandonment of property is ethically 
justifiable only when the thing in possession no longer 
has any real value — only, therefore, when it has ceased 
to be real as property ; that is, when it has ceased to 



54 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

be in any proper sense of the term the outer form of 
the Will. In this case, then, the withdrawal of the 
Will in ^'abandonment" is merely formal. Though 
there must still remain the Ethical demand that the 
abandonment shall not be in such manner as to prove 
an occasion of injury to others. 

(2) In withdrawing the Will from things as property 
through simple abandonment the relation of the indi- 
vidual Will to other Wills is implicit even in precisely 
the same degree (though in inverse order) as in the 
expression of the Will in things through simple appro- 
priation. In point of real import, however, the rela- 
tion is still, even at this stage, a thoroughly real and 
valid one in both the positive and the negative phase. 

In the second stage of withdrawal of the Will from 
things as property the relation of the individual Will 
to other Wills (more commonly to one other Will) is 
explicit and direct. Here the simplest form of with- 
drawal is that of Gift. But this necessarily implies 
the acceptance of the gift. 

^But thus the actual withdrawal of the one Will from 
the given object is possible only in so far as at the 
same moment another Will affirms itself in the same 
object. The Gift is thus a joint act of two Wills, and 
can take place upon no other condition. 

Such in simplest form, is the ethical ground of the 
Gift. In point of detail it is impossible in a summa- 
rized view like the present to do more than merely in- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 55 

dicate the limits of the moral right to give and receive 
presents : namely, within the family group, including 
friends who have acquired a relationship similar in 
character. Beyond this range the gift must be im- 
moral as implying obligation; the greater the prop- 
erty value of the gift the greater the sense of obliga- 
tion; that is, the greater the hindrance to subsequent 
free activity on the part of the one receiving the gift; 
while the one making the gift must suffer moral in- 
jury in the form of confused and exaggerated notions 
as to his own claims upon the one to whom the *\gift '^ 
is made. Further, the moral quality of a gift must de- 
pend in part upon the means of the giver. If in any 
case, for any purpose, I make a gift of my means to 
such extent, no matter how limited, as in any measure 
to put it beyond my power to meet my own just obli- 
gations, then the gift is thus far an immoral act. 

(3) But a further and still more adequate form of 
the expression of Will in property is that of Exchange, 
In every case of exchange the entire process of the 
creation of property is already presupposed (the pro- 
cess itself consisting of the appropriation and trans- 
formation of material things rendering them suited to 
special human uses). Ethically, then, each party to an 
exchange is presumed I0 be already rationally devel- 
oped as a Will. It is further presumed that this pro- 
cess has been creative of values the immediate outer 
concrete form of which is that of the particular articles 



56 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

to be exchanged. But each has produced more of 
some one kind of commodity than he can consume 
and has produced nothing of that kind of property 
resulting from the work of the other. Yet each 
requires for his own well-being some part of what the 
other has produced. Each therefore can without loss 
give up to the other a part of his own product and 
receive with advantage a part of the product of the 
other. Each has what the other lacks and lacks what 
the other has. An exchange, therefore, will be to the 
benefit of each. Here, too, the exchange properly 
speaking is the joint act of the two Wills. Each, in 
one and the same act, withdraws his Will from one 
object and affirms his Will in another object. 

And further, both Wills act simultaneously ; other- 
wise no exchange is effected, and neither Will has 
really accomplished its own transfer from one object 
to another as its own outer form of manifestation. 

(4) But also in the very fact that exchange con- 
stitutes a highly complex medium for the development 
of the Will as really moral, it also proves to be a ready 
means for the development of the Will as immoraL 

Exchange may be unjust as well as just; and it is 
here to be noted that unjust exchange presents three 
distinct ethical degrees. These we can here do no 
more than merely enumerate. The first is due to 
ignorance of the ethical principle applicable in the 
given case; or more commonly to ignorance of the 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 57 

actual ethical relations involved. The second degree 
of immoral exchange is presented in cases where there 
is conscious, deliberate ignoring of the principle 
involved and where careful effort is made to conceal 
(from the other parties concerned) the actual ethical 
relations involved, and to deceive as to the relative 
values of the objects to be exchanged. This is the 
degree known as fraud. In the thif^d place, finally, 
the immoral purpose may become so wholly unre- 
strained as to lead to open defiance of the ethical 
relations necessarily implied and thus to the use of 
violence in the obtaining of desired objects. Here 
all pretense of exchange as such really ceases and 
actual undisguised robbery begins. 

A glance through even so summary a view of the 
ethical aspects of Property as that here presented will 
serve to show that in each and every stage Property is 
possible only as a form of the manifestation of Will 
and that as such it necessarily brings each man into 
relation with all other men. Similarly it is precisely 
these concrete relations of Will to Will as involved in 
property that constitute the indispensable media in the 
elementary stages of the education of the human Will. 

And that this relation, again, may be of a moral or 
of an immoral character is not to be overlooked. 

Chiefly then, within this sphere. Ethics as science is 
the tracing out of the truly rational or just relations 
of man to man as involved in the appropriation and 



58 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

adaptation of things to human uses. And even in 
so meagre a sketch it has already been foreshadowed 
as impossible that these simple forms of relation 
through things as property can actually be realized 
save through the unfolding of the various still more 
complex forms of direct relation constituting the 
essence of the social world. For evidently the rela- 
tions of Will to Will as involved in property can be 
realized only in so far as they are regulated; and this 
necessarily implies that the social world is already 
more or less definitely and consistently unfolded. 
The forms of relation involved in the social world 
will therefore next call for analysis. 

II. The Family. The simplest forms of direct 
relation between human Will and human Will are found 
in the Family; and here again certain specific phases 
of relation appear as pertaining to the rational unfold- 
ing of the Family as such : 

A. The primary phase consists of Marriage, that 
is, the Founding of the Family. 

(i) In tracing the relations here necessarily involved 
it is to be observed at the outset that each of the con- 
tracting parties in marriage is a representative (because 
an organic member) of an already existing family 
group. Hence whatever each does inevitably affects 
the entire group of which he is a member. So that 
in entering into the marriage relation the individual, 
by uniting his life with another life, adds that other 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 59 

life to the family group of which he is himself already 
a member. And because their interests are thus 
bound up with his own he is morally bound to consult 
them upon the question of the proposed union. To 
ignore the convictions and interests of those thus 
related would amount to denial of the universal 
character of the Will. It would in reality amount to 
the extravagance of affirming that the individual's own 
rights are absolutely without restriction and that 
therefore the other personages involved have no rights 
that can hold good in opposition to those claimed by 
the individual. 

And yet this must be nothing less than to assume 
the more immediate resolutions of the individual Will 
(that is, the mere determinations of caprice) as the 
supreme standard. But this could only have for its 
effect to destroy society and render the maturing of 
the individual himself impossible. 

(2) It is, in fact, only through association that the 
individual can attain maturity in any degree as a self- 
conscious, self-determined being. And the family is 
just that form of association through which alone all 
the finer qualities of character — forbearance, tender- 
ness, confidence, love — can be nurtured into full vigor 
and refinement of reality. And primarily this associ- 
ation consists in the fusing of two individualities into 
one. This is, in fact, the first step in the clear, un- 
selfish recognition of the essentially rational, universal 



60 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

nature of Self-hood. It is the forgetfulness of self 
through apprehending the ideal Self in another self. 
And when this recognition is reciprocal as between 
two Wills not otherwise debarred there is present the 
true moral basis of marriage. 

Meanwhile in order that the union may be morally 
valid and valid in full measure^in order that it may 
be really efficient as a means to ethical maturity on the 
part of the personages involved — it is essential that 
those personalities should bring to the union a sub- 
stantial basis of common interest in respect of tastes 
and of moral and religious convictions. 

(3) The inequality of the sexes is not to be ignored. 
Such inequality is at once the product and the meas- 
ure of civilization. In respect of massiveness of 
power there can be no question that man is superior 
to woman. In respect of delicacy of power there can 
be no question that woman is superior to man. These 
differences are less in savage races ; greater in civi- 
lized races. It is not for advancing civilization to 
reduce them but to foster them. It is not that massive 
strength shall become coarse nor that '* delicate " shall 
come to be synonymous with ^* weak." Power may 
become more refined while becoming more massive, 
and grow more vigorous while increasing in delicacy. 
It is thus that the man becomes more manly, the 
woman more womanly. It is through this increasing 
superiority of each over the other that the rational 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 6 1 

equality of the two sexes (their absolute unity in ulti- 
mate spiritual type) is to be progressively and most 
perfectly demonstrated. 

(4) It is precisely through the differentiation of the 
sexes, brought about and constantly emphasized by 
the whole course of civilization, that the proper sphere 
of either sex is determined. It is the heavy and 
highly complex work, requiring prolonged and exhaust- 
ing nervous tension, that in the true economy of the 
world falls naturally to man. On the other hand the 
delicate, intermittent tasks fall no less naturally to 
woman. Whence it is in the sphere of the Home 
that woman finds her natural sphere of activity; just 
as man finds his powers specially suited to the ruder 
and more exhausting pursuits of Commercial and 
Political activity. 

But because woman's most natural sphere of activ- 
ity is within the Home, and because the Home is the 
one medium through which the elements of person- 
ality can all be securely and normally unfolded in 
utmost degree, it is evident that he tessential Rights 
of woman are to be realized in precisely that degree 
in which the Family attains, chiefly through her per- 
formance of her duties, the true measure of its prac- 
tical maturity as a human institution. And further, 
as there is but one Type of Personality, in which all 
question of Sex as well as of race is completely merged, 
it is evident that only the monogamic marriage, in 



62 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

which the essential equality of the contracting parties 
is explicitly recognized, can be a truly moral one. 

But again, genuine Freedom means rational living. 
And to be truly rational in this practical sense the 
individual must conform his own Will to the enlight- 
ened Will of the Race; and this both in the civil and 
in the religious sense of the term. Hence, genuinely 
moral Marriage must have both a civil and a religious 
sanction. The interests of society require this, and 
the interests of the individual as a member of society 
cannot possibly be (morally) separated from the gen- 
eral interest. Ignoring these fundamental organic 
relations means practical self-contradiction, and prac- 
tical self-contradiction means nothing less than self- 
destruction — that is, the absolute inversion of the pro- 
cess of self-realization in one or another degree. 

(5) Finally it is to be noted that increased facility 
for divorce means increased facility for destroying the 
Family with all the moral values which the Family is 
the sole medium for realizing. The Mosaic law per- 
mitting divorce was truly declared to be because of 
the ** hardness of heart " — that is because of the bar- 
barous condition — of the people of that early time. 
The law of Reason recognizes the equality in nature 
of all men — of all human beings. Hence each of 
the contracting parties in marriage, being recognized 
as having equal rights (and duties, which are but the 
obverse side of rights) with the other — being rec- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 63 

ognized, that is, as having substantial freedom — is 
bound to assume the full measure of the consequences 
of the relationships into which he or she enters. The 
more enlightened men become the more justly are they 
to be held rigidly accountable as individuals for what 
they as individuals do. Increase in facility of divorce, 
means reversion to barbarism. Only with complete, 
final estrangement through conduct that already 
destroys the family as a moral unit can divorce be 
other than immoral. 

B. The Relation between Parents and Children con- 
stitutes a further fundamental phase of the compound 
life of the Family. 

(i) The central right of the child as toward the 
parent is, comprehensively, that of a totality of the 
best conditions available for his own moral and intel- 
lectual development. It is especially the moral 
aspect of his spiritual growth that depends most upon 
and finds its best medium in the (normally constituted) 
home. 

(2) Nevertheless the more complex phases of the 
spiritual development of the child demands media of 
a correspondingly complex and carefully chosen char- 
acter. These media are those specially known as 
educational and can be best realized only through 
association in large groups. (The practical questions 
here are classification of pupils and gradation of their 
work, with division of labor to the extent of securing 



64 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

the highest degree of efficiency in teaching.) Here 
voluntary association is the ethical demand and its 
highest form is found in the schools supported by 
self imposed taxation in a free or self-governed com- 
munity. Further, the relation which on the part of 
the child is to be counted as a right, is also on the 
part of the parent a duty. So also the duty of the 
parent to secure educational facilities for the child is 
no less a right on the part of the parent as toward the 
child, who, by the very fact of his right to these 
advantages, is under moral obligation to make the 
best possible use of them. 

(3) It is of special importance to note in this con- 
nection that the obligations of the parent to the child 
in respect of moral oversight are absolute and cannot 
by these or any other means be in the least reduced 
in degree nor can they, in any measure, be delegated 
or transferred. The duties of the teacher are sui generis 
and can only be added to, but can never take the place 
of, those of the parent to the child. To both parent 
and teacher the child owes the absolute duty of obe- 
dience, as he has also the absolute right to be always 
reasonably commanded by both. 

(4) The sacrifices made by the parent in performing 
his duty toward the child also constitute a means of 
discipline to the parent himself. So that here, too, in 
performing his duties he is (however unconsciously) 
realizing his own highest rights as well. 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 65 

On the other hand the child, stimulated to increased 
exertion by his sense of obligation to his parents, is by 
that fact securing in increased degree his own essential 
rights in point of intellectual and moral development. 
— Thus, in this sphere also, and from whatever point 
of view the relation between parents and children is 
approached, it is again manifest that every right is also 
a duty and that every duty is also a right. 

C. Rational Dissolution of the Family. As the 
essential moral purpose of the family is that of 
means to the maturing of the moral units or indi- 
vidual Wills composing it, it is but inevitable that as 
this end is accomplished the given family group must 
dissolve into a number of independent individuals. 
Thus the children, as they attain moral maturity (i. e. 
became actual persons^, form each a new alliance — 
become each a party to the founding of a new family. 
(Rational exceptions must be from reasons of health, 
or of renunciation for the purpose of more perfectly 
fulfilling a given mission rightly regarded in such 
exceptional cases as a higher duty.) 

The final stage in the normal dissolution of the 
family group appears in the death of one or other of 
the parents after having aided the children to the 
attainment of rational independence. 

III. The State, (i) By its own expansion the 
family becomes many families. These groups again, 
and the individuals composing them, are necessarily 
5 



66 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

related one to another. And further, to be rational 
in the sense of real these relations must become 
organic. 

The organic form assumed by these wider human 
relations is, on one side, the State. 

This organic form is a measure of the real extent 
and character of the political life of a people. What 
is called a '' constitution," if it has vital significance in 
the state, is but an outer form showing how the people 
as a political body are constituted. 

As the state is but the expansion of the family on 
the side of securing to each individual his rights as 
toward all other individuals it follows that, as in case 
of the family, so also here, those in authority are 
morally bound to secure the best possible conditions 
for the intellectual and moral development of each and 
all the members comprising the group. 

These conditions are : {a) Settled order involving 
security against invasion of individual rights whether ^ 
of person or of property; {S) Security against inva- 
sion of social and political rights as against foreign 
power; and (c) An educational system providing for 
an intelligent, moral and therefore efficient citizenship. 

(2) In all this the ideal is, not repression but 
rational development of the individual — the fostering 
and cultivation of his powers toward rational self- 
government. 

Such being the duty of the State, the State in that 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 6/ 

very fact has also the right to demand of every citizen 
that he shall perform whatever functions may be de- 
manded of him for the realization of these rational 
ends proposed by the State for the benefit of the 
individual citizen. 

Conversely the citizen has the right to demand of 
the State security of person and property together with 
means for his education as a citizen; and such right 
involves the duty on his part to loyal obedience to 
such commands as the State may give, within such 
limits, as toward himself. 

(3) In the '' absolute " monarchy all this is implicit 
in greater or less degree. The '' paternal '' aspect 
implies the " filial." In the nature of the case there 
are limitations to arbitrary use of power. The more 
truly paternal the authority the more rapid the advance 
of the people toward comprehension and appreciation 
of their rights — that is, the more rapid must be their 
advance toward maturity of active rational Will which 
in turn must find articulate expression in the form of 
a demand for a constitution and written laws — that is, 
the more efficient and reasonable an "■ absolute " 
monarchy proves itself to be, only so much the sooner 
must it dissolve as such and become merged into a 
"limited " or constitutional monarchy. 

(4) Similarly, the more enlightened and efficient 
the monarchy under its constitutional form, the more 
rapid the advance of the people in intelligence and 



68 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

morality — in the elements of real Freedom — and hence 
the sooner must it become merged into a purely Rep- 
resentative form of goverximent — the entire govern- 
ment being conducted by the chosen agents of the 
people themselves. 

(5) The Ideal of the State is one and continuous. 
What particular phase of its realization is most efficient 
or ^' practical " with any people at any given time must 
depend upon the stage of intellectual and moral 
advancement already attained by the people themselves. 

A purely representative system must be as impracti- 
cable in a barbarous State as an absolute monarchy 
would be with a highly enlightened people. 

IV. The School. Already included in the Family, 
in the State and in the Church the School is still a dis- 
tinct institution, with unique, well-defined and increas- 
ingly complex functions. The individual Will in its 
character of Instinct is due to heredity in the more 
direct sense of the term. 

Already at birth, indeed, such Will is a positive, com- 
plex unit of energy specially predisposed to action of 
one or another particular kind. Again in its char- 
acter as Habit the Will may still be regarded as in 
large measure the outcome of heredity, though here the 
inheritance is not only spiritual instead of physical, 
but it is also of an exceedingly subtle character. 

From the moment in which his distinctly individual 
existence begins, indeed, the human being is not only 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 69 

surrounded by a humanized nature (the temperature 
and humidity of the air in the room, as well as the 
degree of light, are carefully regulated to his needs, 
to say nothing of specially prepared food and clothing) 
but he is also ceaselessly bathed in what may be called 
the spiritual fluid of Custom. 

This again, in its existing peculiar character, has 
been evolved through the entire process of human 
history and to this the individual progressively assimi- 
lates himself in those specific qualities of his life 
which in their outer forms are revealed as his Habits. 

But also in every moment of his life the individual 
is bathed in that subtle, but none the less real 
^'atmosphere" of universal, abiding relations consti- 
tuting the unity of the world, physical and spiritual; 
which relations are to be more or less securely 
<^/prehended indeed by the whole being of man ; 
while on the other hand they are to be really comi^x^- 
hended by man only through the fullest discipline as 
well as the utmost and most consistent and persistent 
exercise of that peculiar mode of mind known as 
reflective Intelligence, as Thought properly speaking. 
Only through the fullest cultivation, onlv through the 
most persistent exercise of the intellect in its highest 
modes can human consciousness attain its most ade- 
quate degree of maturity. And that amounts to say- 
ing that in no other way than through the fullest 
intellectual development can Conscience as the Ethical 



70 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS, 

aspect of Consciousness become truly enlightened and 
thus prove a safe guide through the r^;;^plexities of 
life which to the unenlightened conscience so often 
prove to be the fatal /<frplexities of life — fatal because 
in such maze the groping mind loses its way, falls into 
self-contradiction and unwittingly turns life into 
death. It is simply impossible to be fully '^born 
again " into the higher forms of life with all their 
rich significance save through the maturing of the 
whole mind including the Intellect in fullest measure; 
and this, as we have just seen, is necessarily involved 
in, and hence depends upon, the maturing of the 
whole social organism. 

Now the School is just that special aspect of the 
Social Organism which has for its most immediate 
specific function to stimulate and guide the individual 
mind in the intellectual aspect of its development. 
And the ultimate end here aimed at is two-fold, (i) 
In the first place it is the function of the school to 
bring the individual mind as speedily as possible to 
comprehend its own true worth as being (for itself) the 
actual focus in which the whole sum of concrete rela- 
tions constituting its environment have their normal 
center. The ethical factor in this is the development 
of Self-respect. (2) In the second place the end 
aimed at in the intellectual training of the child 
includes this also, That with least delay and with 
utmost precision and fulness he shall learn to com- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 7 1 

prehend that toward his own normal development (or 
abnormal prevention and perversion of development) 
the whole complex of relations constituting the environ- 
ment works, and must ceaselessly work, according as 
the attitude of the individual mind to the whole is 
rational or the reverse. And here the ethical factor is 
the development of respect for the environment as 
the total, infinitely concrete, infinitely complex embod- 
iment of Reason in its ultimate divine nature. There- 
fore is it that the child is taught the laws of the physi- 
cal world summarized in the Sciences of Physics, 
Chemistry and Biology. Therefore is he taught the 
laws of the Social World as unfolded implicitly, first 
in the forms of Language, Literature, Art and His- 
tory ; and again as unfolded explicitly in the ethical 
sciences — Politics, Social Philosophy and Ethics 
strictly speaking. 

For his own fullest security and guidance in the 
process of his own self-realization individual man 
must possess developed power of reflection; he must 
have acquired clearly organized, consistently unfolded 
knowledge both of nature and of man. And (with 
rare exceptions at most) it is through the school, and 
through the school alone that the highest degree of 
the habit of mind rendering such acquisition of 
knowledge possible is to be really attained at all. 
And further, since self-realization is the ultimate ethi- 
cal end of life, and since the attainment of the fullest 



72 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

possible measure of organized knowledge of the world 
of nature on the one hand and of the world of man on 
the other is a necessary condition to, or rather an essen- 
tial phase of, such self-realization in its more advanced 
degrees, then it is evident that the individual has ab- 
solute, inalienable moral right to the fullest possible 
sum of conditions making for the attainment of such 
knowledge. In other words the individual has abso- 
lute moral right to this, That all other individuals 
shall join in deliberate, concerted, unreserved effort 
to secure to him the fullest possible sum of condi- 
tions tending toward the truest form of his self-reali- 
zation, and this in richest attainable degree. 

And if it be admitted that this is the absolute i?/]^>^/ 
of each then inevitably it is equally the absolute Duty 
of each to contribute of his whole being — property, 
sympathy, thought and deed — to the richest possible 
realization of this Right for each and every other 
member of the community (which in the fuller sense is 
the State, and in the fullest sense is the whole human 
race). 

Here as elsewhere if I refuse to be, in absolute 
good-faith — in very deed and truth — my brother's 
keeper, then by the very fact of such refusal I become 
for myself an immeasurable lose?-. Because the indi- 
vidual mind is universal in its nature or type it is not 
merely included in all, ifc-also and none the less truly 
includes all within itself. The State is above the In- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 73 

dividual only so far as the individual is capricious. 
In so far as the Individual is rational he is the State 
itself; for there is no rational (/. e. truly Ethical) de- 
mand which the State can make upon him that is not 
already present within him as an absolutely vital, un- 
alterable law of his own being. Nay he is more than 
the State, for there are demands of his nature which 
the State as such cannot possibly satisfy. Hence are 
there other institutions organic to man's inner or 
spiritual nature and indispensable to the full expres- 
sion or embodiment of that nature. 

And the School is one of these institutions. The 
State can decree the School, and must do so. It can 
provide the outer form and instrumentalities of the 
School, and must, on penalty of self-dissolution; but 
the School in its essential character as the medium 
through which individual minds are to be stimulated 
and guided into such self-activity as results in the 
mastery and very assimilation of the fundamental 
principles or phases of Reason which constitute the 
essence of the World, whether of Nature or of Man — 
in this sense the School is and can only be the crea- 
tion of the mature individual mind — ripe in its intel- 
ligence, refined in its sensibilities, gentle in its as- 
sured power as Will, and withal transfused with that 
genuine ^^ enthusiasm of humanity" which must ever 
characterize the true teacher. 

All this every pupil has a right to expect of his teacher 



74 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

just as, on the other hand, every one who assumes the 
responsibilities of teacher is in duty bound to fulfil 
such expectation. 

On the other hand in so far as the teacher performs 
his duty toward the pupil, patiently pointing out to 
him the essential facts and relations involved in the 
given stage of the pupil's own development, in so far 
the teacher has a right to expect of his pupil the full- 
est measure of attention and patient effort of which 
he is capable. And further, just as the teacher is in 
duty bound (negatively) to avoid all that could dis- 
courage or embitter the pupil on the one hand, and 
on the other hand (positively) to make use in kind- 
liest way of all proper means to stimulate healthful 
effort toward self-realization on the pupil's part, so 
again the pupil is in duty bound to give patient, doc- 
ile obedience to the directions of the teacher and to 
bend all his energies to the performance of tasks as- 
signed. 

And evidently the enthusiasm of the teacher, his 
eager, self-forgetful performance of his own duty tow- 
ard the pupil must ever prove the surest way of secur- 
ing his own rights in the way of cheerful obedience 
and eager performance of work on the part of his 
pupils; just as the earnest performance of duty on the 
part of the pupil must in general put beyond ques- 
tion the fullest recognition of his rights on the part 
of the teacher. It is in the rhythm of work performed 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 75 

in such spirit in the school-room that all bitterness is 
canceled, all discords annulled, and the beauty of a 
world of Reason prophesied, and even in some degree 
made real here and now. It is in such teaching that 
the finest values in the way of the practical results of 
Ethical teaching consists. 

Though also it cannot be too much insisted upon 
that the direct ethical function of the School consists 
in the development of consciousness on the part of 
pupils of the great central principles involved in 
human existence, conformity to which means life and 
disregard of which inevitably entails death. In a word 
the ethical function of the School is to raise the con- 
science of the individual pupil from the merely in- 
stinctive degree to that of an enlightened Conscience. 
Or again its ethical function is to aid in rendering 
the progressively unfolding individual Will truly free 
through the complete interfusion of that Will with 
trained intelligence. 

But to this end the religious factor is equally neces- 
sary. Hence the objective aspect of ethics must in- 
volve a further institution — the Church. 

V. The Church. The State is the expansion of the 
family in one of its essential aspects. The Church is 
the expansion of the family in another and comple- 
mentary aspect. The Church cannot be rightly re- 
garded as merely one aspect of the State. Just as out 
of the rudimentary stage of consciousness (in the pro- 



"J^ A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

gressive development of the individual) the two cog- 
nate and always inseparable, while yet increasingly 
distinct, modes of mind — Intelligence and Practical 
Sentiment— are developed; so from the Family as the 
rudimentary form of the social organism there are 
found to develop the two cognate and always inter- 
fused while yet increasingly distinct modes, namely 
the State and the Church. The State is the organic 
form which the political life of man assumes while the 
Church is the organic form into which the religious 
life of man unfolds. 

In either case the functions involved must fail of 
realization save through the appropriate organic struc- 
tural form; and those functions constitute life itself. 
Without the State man must have remained a savage ; 
or rather, could never have become man at all. With- 
out the Church man could never have arisen above 
the grossest superstition ; and even this implies at 
least a rudimentary Church. 

Man can be fully realized as man — can live the life 
of man in the fullest sense — only by the unfolding of 
that life in all the organic forms which its nature 
demands. 

Religion has no doubt been rightly defined as the 
''relation of Man to God." But man is related to 
God through all forms of Reality and especially 
through that most complex form of reality, man him- 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 'J'J 

self. Individual man rises to God through associa- 
tion with his fellow-man. 

In property (looking to the least adequate phases 
of human creation) man finds himself even there 
necessarily related to his fellow-man. In Religion 
(looking to his own direct relation to the Supreme 
Creator) man still finds himself related to his fellow- 
man. 

Religion is the practical relation of man to God — 
\\\^ process by which man fulfills the divine nature in 
himself and so attains to harmony with the Divine. 

Theology is the scientific (or philosophic) tracing 
out and representation of that practical relation or 
process in its fundamental principles. 

The Church is the direct medium — the organic 
structural form — through which that process is to be 
made real. 

Thus the Church is itself essentially an educational 
institution having especially for its purpose to foster 
and develop the moral qualities of man into conscious 
conformity with the divine Ideal of all spiritual life — 
the fusion of the human life with the divine Life. 

To this end the Church has the right (and the duty) 
to demand of each member that he put forth with 
utmost earnestness and sincerity every possible effort 
to unfold his intellectual powers so as to comprehend, 
and his moral powers so as to perform, in the wisest 
and most efficient manner his unalterable obligations 



78 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. 

to the Divinity — such obligations necessarily includ- 
ing all his obligations to his fellow man — financial, 
social, political, religious. For thus only can individual 
man hope to fulfil his own obligations to himself. It is 
absolutely true that ''he who offends in one offends in 
all." Thus it is the duty of the individual to attend with 
utmost care to the teachings of the Church; and this 
necessarily implies the absolute right of the individual 
to be taught by the Church the true lesson of his rela- 
tion to the Divinity, including all that is of permanent 
validity in the relation of man to man. 

Again the Church as the organic form into which 
the religious spirit of man unfolds, proves to be itself 
a growth — a form perpetually undergoing modifica- 
tion. Its form therefore will depend — has ever de- 
pended — essentially upon the degree and character of 
the actual religious life of the people. 

In primitive ages uniformity was impossible because 
there was no common standard — not even a common 
object of worship. As enlightenment increases uni- 
formity seems an impossibility from the multiform 
divergence of views arising in consequence of the in- 
creasingly complex intellectual activity of man. 

But the same principle runs through all — to aid 
man in his efforts to live a more consistently rational, 
more adequately moral, more richly religious life. 

Whence religious teaching must ever involve a dis- 
tinctly ethical factor. And further, the science of the 



OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 79 

object and process of religion must include the pre- 
sentation of fundamental Ethical principles from the 
religious (and theological) point of view. Whence 
Ethics must here appear rather as a department of 
Theology; just as throughout the Science of Ethics 
in the ordinary sense there is always and inevitably 
to be discovered a distinct theological tinge. 

Thus Ethics, or the Science of the fundamental 
principles underlying the relations of man to man, 
merges into Theology, or the science of the funda- 
mental principles underlying the relations of man to 
God. 



SELECTED LIST OF HAND AND REFERENCE 
BOOKS. 

The beginner in any department of study can only 
be bewildered by an extended " bibliography," while 
a few titles will really serve to introduce him to the 
subject he proposes to investigate. The following are 
likely to be most helpful to one entering upon the 
study of Ethics. 

I. For the history of the subject, Sidgwick^s Ouf- 
lines of the Histo7j of Ethics may safely be balanced by 
the admirable summaries of ethical theories in Schweg- 
ler's handbook of the History of Philosophy, (This 
book ought to be carefully read as a whole, so 
as to seize the standpoints of the various schools in 
their proper perspective.) 

IL Among elementary presentations of the science 
of Ethics as such, Muirhead's Elements of Ethic 
will be found specially fresh and suggestive. 

III. Of the more extended ethical treatises, ancient 
and modern, the following may be recommended as 
best presenting the various points of view : (i) Aris- 
totle's Nicomachean Ethics (Trans. F. H. Peters)- — 
presupposed in all ethical theory since his time ; (2) 
Epictetus, The Discourses (Trans. George Long) — 
highest expression of the Ethics of Stoicism ; (3) Kant's 



HAND AND REFERE^XE BOOKS 8 1 

Theory of Ethics (Trans. Thomas Kingsmill x\bbott); 
(4) Hegel's Philosophic des Rechts. The latter is of the 
utmost importance for the objective aspect of Ethics. 
To this the present writer is indebted more than to any 
other single work.* — Kant and Hegel are the chief rep- 
resentatives of the most thorough-going German 
Idealism; (5) Spencer's The Data of Ethics \ (6) Leslie 
Stephen, Science of Ethics. — Spencer and Stephen have 
given the fullest formulation to evolutional Ethics ; 
(7) Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics — represents 
Utilitarianism in its most refined form ; (8) Lotze's 
Microcosmus, especially Books V-VHI, inclusive. — 
Lotze's position is independent though idealistic; at 
the same time it is strongly pervaded by the spirit of 
modern Science ; (9) Emerson's essays on The Con- 
duct of Life — No more a formal treatise on Ethics than 
the Microcosmus of Lotze ; and yet, a richly suggest- 
ive and ennobling view of the essentials of ethical 
relation ; (10) Green's Prolego^nena to Ethics^ together 
with his Introductions to Hume's Treatise on Human 
Nature, especially that to Vol. IL — Green's works are 
rigidly philosophical and are not surpassed by any 
ethical treatise in the English language in point of 
penetration and stimulating quality; (11) For 
suggestive intimations of the principles underlying 

*Readers not familiar with the German will find this work summarized in 
"Hegel's Philosophy of the State and of History " by George S. Morris. 
Published by S. C. Griggs & Co. 

6 



82 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. n J ^ 

/ ^t 

the objective aspect of Ethics it need hardly be said ^ ^ 
that Plato's Republic is invaluable, while as a modern 
survey of the whole general sphere of social life Mac- 
kenzie's Introduction to Social Philosophy will be found 
specially suggestive; and finally (12) Bradley's Ethi- 
cal Studies can scarcely fail to prove specially suited 
to clear the mind of ethical confusions and thus pre- 
pare the way for sound and consistent views in this 
sphere. 



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